Dow Jones launches Islamic market index

The DJIM China Offshore Hong Kong Index represents the performance of companies that have been screened for compliance with Islamic principles and whose primary operations are in China but trade on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Stocks included in the index are H-Shares and Red Chips.

The DJIM China Offshore Hong Kong Index is designed to serve as underlying for investment products such as mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other investable products.

“Market participants will find in this index a way to track Sharia-compliant mainland China stocks that are listed in the easily accessible Hong Kong market rather than in the restricted local Chinese market.”

The DJIM China Offshore Hong Kong Index is weighted by free-float market capitalisation and component weights are capped at 10 per cent.

As of April 30, the index consists of 40 components of which the top five components by free float-adjusted market capitalisation are China Mobile, China Unicom, CITIC Pacific, CNOOC and PetroChina.

The DJIM China Offshore Hong Kong Price Index (US dollar) gained 152.9pc from its base date, December 31, 2005 in a backtest. The DJIM China Offshore Hong Kong Index is calculated in both US dollar and Hong Kong dollar versions. It is reviewed quarterly in March, June, September and December.